The Naturalist

The roar and hiss of the devices was utterly overwhelming, literally deafening.  Naturalist Nullwrit Fesciola hadn't been able to hear it for some time, but she still felt the rumble in her bones whenever she or one of her helpers fired them up again.  Her assistant wore heavily padded muffs over his ears, standing at the control wheels of the finicky setup.  Fesciola flagged his attention and with deft, slender fingers signed, FLYWHEELS  1 3 DISENGAGE BUT AGAIN SPIN.  MAGNETITE REMOVE-FROM-COIL.  She was not a large or sturdy woman and almost seemed enveloped by the soot-smeared and chemical-stained frock she wore.  Still, she commanded a presence that seemed to dominate even a room bustling with powerful machines.

Erteq nodded and set to work reconfiguring the gear shafts to pull the two massive rings of stone out of active use and back to being spun by the steam engines dominating half of the laboratory; forgoing grammar had drawbacks, but the Scribe's dominion must be respected.

Without warning, a tooth snapped from one of the gears straining against flywheel one.  It pinged off flywheel two before the slippage sheared the next few teeth from the gear.  Erteq quickly wound the shaft back, preventing further damage to the gear and, despite the adrenaline now flooding his blood, manage to calmly evaluate the damage: five missing teeth all of which miraculously missed jamming any of the assembly below.

Naturalist Nullwrit was too enraptured by the collection of glass on her side of the lab to look back even if she had felt the change in the building's vibration.  The massive coil of copper wire's trailing ends currently led to two slabs of metal immersed in water; above each was an inverted glass container which, despite having been full of water ten minutes before now were filled with gas, one halfway and one fully.  Without looking away, she signaled for her assistant to come join her.  SPARKER BRING, she signed over her shoulder.

Erteq slid down the the ladder to the floor of the hall, landing a bit more roughly than he intended.  Favoring his right foot, he walked gingerly past a bench to grab a sparker and then over to the naturalist's side.  She looked him up and down, one eyebrow cocked, as he hobbled over.  He looked her in the eyes as he handed the sparker over all the while doing his level best to not betray his embarrassment.  The considerably shorter woman drew her mouth into a knowing, subtle smile before ascending the small step ladder to reach the glassware.

Reaching into the water, she opened the junction between the two gas-filled vessels and waited a few moments before uncorking one and showering it with sparks.

She found herself soaking wet on the floor, covered in broken glass with Erteq hovering over her, worry etched across his generously-wide face.  The constant vibration of the steam engines had stopped, indicating to her that she had been unconscious of some time.  FINE?  FINE?  PAIN ANY-WHERE, he signed to her.

Fesciola laughed.  "I'm not badly hurt," she practically shouted, "That was quite the demonstration, wasn't it?"  She looked around at the laboratory, much of it now dripping with saltwater.

DAMAGE NOT-BAD.  OTHER RESEARCH MESSY BUT NOT-RUINED.  FINE SURE?  The naturalist placed her hand on his and nodded.  Erteq wiped a few beads of blood from his still-furrowed brow with his free hand.  Although he had been farther from the explosion, he had suffered worse injuries from the glass shards.  GOOD GRAMMARIAN NOT-YET ARRIVE.  WOULD TERRIBLE.


Fesciola pursed her lips, raised her eyebrows, and nodded again.  "We'll have to see if we can't set up something impressive that won't kill him when he arrives."  She still spoke too loudly, but her assistant was used to that.  "Is the arc assembly dry enough for use?"  He tilted his head to point over her shoulder with his chin.  Turning, she saw that it was already connected to the leads from the induction coil.  She shifted her grip on his hand and pulled herself to her feet.

CHANGE-CLOTHES OUGHT.  HAVE ONLY, Erteq glanced out the window and across the river to the city's clock tower, 8-MINUTES BEFORE GRAMMARIAN GROUP ARRIVE.  He led her out the door and through the archway to her study.



(The gloss used to represent sign language should not be taken to indicate that the sign is in some sort of pidgin.  Gloss is a common way of representing sign languages in written format but has the drawback of appearing simplistic or ungrammatical to initiates. -Nelson)